My invention relates to a pulling mechanism, such as a winch-hoist, and typically, in a preferred form, to portable, hand operated winch-hoists in which a main frame is hooked, or otherwise coupled, to fixed structure and has a rotatable winding drum and a loop of cable which has end portions fixed to the drum and to the frame, means being provided for actuating the drum to reel in the cable and to permit and to control unreeling thereof. The cable extends toward the load, in most instances hanging from the drum in the frame, and terminates in load-carrying means, or extends to and through a hook-bearing pulley block, then returning to and terminating at the main frame. An operating lever is pivoted to the main frame for swinging movements about the drum axis, and ratchet and pawl mechanism is operable to rotate and control the drum and cable when the lever is actuated.
For the purposes of the present invention, the general type of apparatus to which my invention can be applied may be of one or more known types, such, for instance, as the type of apparatus shown and described in my copending Application Ser. No. 629,262, filed Nov. 6, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,551 Application being a continuation of my Application Ser. No. 453,919 filed Mar. 22, 1974, now abandoned. For example, in carrying out the purposes of the present invention, certain features, such as the pawl and ratchet mechanism employed in the apparatus of said copending application may be used. Similar elements are also shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,633,328, issued Mar. 31, 1952.
While apparatus of such type has proven to be highly advantageous, it still leaves something to be desired relative to the range of loads which can be handled with ease and convenience, as such apparatus generally has one load rating, sometimes supplemented by double rating, with capacity limitations imposed by the effort required to operate a handle of practical length.